Review: Harbinger (2026)

Low budget filmmaking can produce some impressive results, and there's a lot about this new horror from Shogun films to enjoy.

Released on blu-ray by 101 Films, Harbinger is one of those 'group of people get slaughtered in a house' type films, but they have added an original twist that the killings are being carried out by a possessed arcade machine called 'Harbinger', a variation on the Zoltar seaside 'tell your fortune' machines. 

Thus a group of documentary film makers descend on the house in which Julia (Jeanine Nerissa Sothcott) lived and was attacked five years previously by a serial killer Henry Decker (Peter Woodward). They bring Julia with them and intend to make a new episode of their series Spectre Investigates, fronted by Mike Craggs (Gary Webster). There to capture the proceedings are the sound girl April (Maisey Gee), her boyfriend cameraman Barney (Joseph Emms), make-up girl Kathryn (Anna Arthur), who Barney has been sleeping with and who has got pregnant, a supernatural expert Chris (Johnny Palmiero), and psychic Neil (Tony Sands). However the Harbinger machine doles out some tarot-like cards to each of them, and soon they realise that the figure in the machine is out to get them!

The film has a lot going for it. There's some smashing cinematograpy and drone work, some great colour palates inside the house (very inspired by Italian Giallo, and Dario Argento's film Suspiria in particular), and some great performances from the majority of the cast.

Where the film is let down is in the choice of the leading lady, and the script. Jeanine Nerissa Sothcott is sadly very wooden. Her scenes fall flat and it's a struggle to believe in her as Julia. This is just thrown into contrast by the rest of the cast who are universally excellent, and I wished one of them had ended up as being the 'final girl' here rather than Julia.

On the script front, the biggest issue for me was that the tarot cards given by the machine should have been predictors of how these people would meet their ends ... but while some hint at it, others seem to have no bearing at all. In a film of this type, where the whole 'point' is the killings, they should have been far more imaginative and clever ... far more like the sort of deaths presented in the Italian Giallos which this film tries (and mostly succeeds) in matching for visual style and flair. It's a shame that the stalking Harbinger figure seems to just resort to mostly strangling people and killing them with a knife.

There's some material in here which doesn't make a lot of sense. For example, if this house belonged to Julia, then why leave a valuable painting on the wall? She takes the 'job' with the film crew to earn some much-needed money to help her aged mother (an excellent scene with veteran actress Carole Ann Ford holding her own) - but why do that if there was money tied up in the old house which she obviously doesn't live in any more. I was also puzzled by the whole sequence of the young girl in the bath with the mask on ... it seemed out of place. The film also drags in places, which with six killings to execute (sorry) and only 90 minutes to do it all in, is something of an issue.

Overall Harbinger was enjoyable, but sadly the choice of lead makes it a harder watch and a lot less fun and action packed than it could have been.

How to get my books!

I'm seeing more and more people posting that my books aren't available in the USA or Australia, and how can I get copies ...

The real challenge I think is that shipping costs have gone through the roof over the last 5-6 years and it now costs more than the book to ship things overseas (from the UK, which is where I and all the books are physically located).

However there are a few options available.

If it's signed copies that you're after, then if you order from my own store here:

https://samantha-lee-howe-ltd.sumupstore.com/products?category=9b37b1db-0176-46fd-bc88-1f79643f4d74

Then all the books are signed and all have options for USA and Australia shipping ... so while the cost might be higher than from Amazon or whatever, Amazon may not have the titles in your country anyway!

The store has all my non-Telos Publishing titles:  My Doctor Who Memoir Who Me! in all editions (hardback, paperback, trade paperback, and proof copy); the new Doctor Who audio Shard of Life is there too, as are my two Doctor Who review books Then and Now ... so please check it out if you're looking for something that I have written!

Many other titles are now also published by Telos Publishing, and so you can head to www.telos.co.uk to find them, and most are also available on Amazon where you live ... so it's always worth checking there as well!

If all else fails, you can always reach out to me on social media - you never know ... I might have copies of what you're looking for!  https://www.facebook.com/davidjhowe/

Review: The Mortuary Assistant (2026)

A new film from the horror streaming channel Shudder ... and apparently it's based on a bestselling video game. I've never heard of it, but then I don't 'do' computer games so I'm not the target market in that regard.

I suspect though that this background is at the same time the film's greatest strength and it's greatest weakness.

I'm reminded of other films taken from computer games where I've never played the games. Movies like Silent Hill, Resident Evil and Doom. In each case the film makers took the apparent essence of the game, and managed to construct a decent plot around it, so that the viewers were not left in the dark about what was going on. In the case of The Mortuary Assistant, it's the plot that's lacking. The script could have done with another draft or two to really nail what was going on and to translate that to scares on the screen. Instead I assume they've taken the 'plot' of the video game and established that the fact that the location is so key there, that so it is in the film (they mention this in the brief behind the scenes documentary that accompanies the film on blu-ray). Except that it isn't really.

I'm reminded of a film with an apparently similar premise, The Autopsy of Jane Doe, which is again set in a mortuary and has limited characters. That film manages to be terrifying and intriguing (mainly due to a brilliant performance from Brian Cox), but The Mortuary Assistant, despite heaps of atmosphere and scares, just manages to be confusing for the early to mid part of its runtime.

The plot revolves around the eponymous assistant, Rebecca Owens, who has just passed her 'exams' or whatever they are, and can now look after things in the mortuary on her own. Thus her creepy boss suddenly asks her to do a night shift as bodies have come in that need processing. And so she's on her own in the place with these cadavers.  But the cadavers don't seem to be that dead and start moving and coming back to life ... except maybe they're not, and perhaps she's hallucinating. Or not.

It's this uncertainty about what's happening which loses the audience. I started not to really care what happened as it was never 'real' and we reset back to where we were before. Lots of great jump moments and creepiness abounds, but it never amounts to anything.

But then the film turns and it's suddenly a possession movie, where an ancient demon wants to possess Rebecca's body (not sure why her's and no-one elses - it seemed to possess a lot of the corpses ... if that was what was happening)  And to stop it she needs to find out it's name and create it on a large pendant thing and burn it on her chest or something.  The runes which make up the name are, for some reason, burned into the walls of the mortuary, but she can only see them in the flame from a lit piece of parchment.

As you can see, the 'but why?' factor is high here, and there are few answers. You just need to go with it and hope it all sort of comes out ok at the end.  Cue lots of creeping around the mortuary with a single flame looking for the marks and trying to avoid the hallucinations and the demon ... great video game fare!

In the film's favour are just about every element except the plot!  The practical effects are exceedingly effective, but also gratuitous. The gore of the dissections and attacks are wincingly realistic, and to be honest a little too much for me. But they are superbly done! The performances are first rate, with a great central character in Rebecca (Willa Holland). The set design, lighting and direction are excellent, providing some fascinating angles and prowling camera throughout, and the music and sound design is also first rate, adding to the atmosphere and general ambience of the film.  It's just the script which lets it down.

Overall it was an entertaining watch, but because of the gore and body horror which starts from virtually the first frame and doesn't let up, it's not a film I would rush to watch again. I guess if you love a film with some great gruesome effects in, and are not too worried about it all making total sense, then you may love this to pieces!

The film is now available as a blu-ray which also contains a single behind the scenes featurette from Acorn Media.

Review: The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth

Two new releases from AllTheAnime.com, and two classics from the Henson studios.

First up is The Dark Crystal. Following the success of Jim Henson's Muppets on television in Sesame Street and then their own The Muppet Show, the idea was mooted for a film which could feature them. Furthermore, there would be no human performers at all ...

The Dark Crystal takes this idea and runs with it big time. Everything on screen is puppetry and animatronics in real time: no CGI no AI no animation ... and yet this major selling point for the film becomes its biggest downfall. You just don't care much about the lead characters Gelflings Jen and Kira. They can't emote and act as a human performer would, and so while you can follow the plot and Jen's journey to complete the titular Dark Crystal, you don't really care. 

It's also all taken dead seriously, with the Skeksis being evil and cackly and the peaceful Mystics being, well, slow and peaceful. And this impedes the film. It's all a little ponderous and heavy.

There are some gorgeous sets and shots. A favouite is a long slow pan across a forest where everything is alive from the plants and fungi to the trees and animals and insects ... all created through puppetry. It's beautifully done and testament to the skill of the makers.

I know the film holds a special place in many fans' hearts, but sadly it just doesn't do it for me. I admire the talent and inventiveness that went into it, but I wish they had used real actors for the two Gelflings to give more humanity and emotion to the performances.

And speaking of using human actors brings us to the second film realeased by All The Anime.com, Labyrinth.

For this film, while it's the same production team, and it features puppetry and animatronics, they very wisely decided to use humans for the main protagonists, and in a genius move of casting, paired a young 14 year old Jennifer Connolly, with the pop icon David Bowie. And the magic happened.

Take an inventive and clever script from Monty Python's Terry Jones and combine with the visual flair of artist Brian Froud (who also worked on The Dark Crystal) and they managed to capture lightning in a bottle with the story of a young girl who asks the Goblin King to take her baby brother away, and then has to traverse the eponymous labyrinth to rescue him, making friends and meeting all manner of strange creatures along the way.

The film is a tour de force and Connolly and Bowie are perfectly matched in their battle of words and deeds to rescue baby Toby. But it's some of the subsidiary characters who stick in the memory, in particular Hoggle (who is deliberately mis-named as Hogwort by Bowie a couple of times - was this film perhaps a favourite of a certain J K Rowling?), a masterpiece of animatronic face (controlled by four operators) and actor-in-a-suit to bring it all to life. Likewise is the amazing lumbering Ludo, an orange-haired ape creature with a single operator within to bring it to life, as well as having an animatronic face. Add the voice talents to the visuals and the effect is seamless, the creatures leaping off the screen and into your heart.

It's all just so well done. The merging of elements like M C Escher's paintings, the toys in Sarah's bedroom coming to life, the goblin myth and legend, and above it all, striding as some beautiful, powerful Goblin King, the master himself, David Bowie.

Bowie's performance is towering. He's such a talent, and composed the songs for the movie himself, as well as performing them. When you compare this performance with his equally powerful role in the film The Hunger, you can see what a talent he was. Charisma on a stick!

As you can probably tell I love Labyrinth. It takes the seeds that were sown in The Dark Crystal and matures and improves on them at every turn. I don't think the film puts a foot wrong. Even down to the tone, which this time is distinctly humourous. Yes, the leads take it all very seriously, but there is humour in nearly all the subsidiary characters from Didymus and Ludo through to the incompetant guards and other elements which appear throughout the movie.

The prints on these two releases are great quality and show off the films to their best advantage, and they come with a wealth of extras, from documentaries to outtakes, and even to casting reels, which for Labyrinth show that they really did make the right decision casting Connolly. A shame that her audition reel is not included though.

Available from www.alltheanime.com

Review: The Ginger Snaps Trilogy

Second Sight films bring us a new box-set Blu-Ray release of the three films in the Ginger Snaps trilogy. I've long been a fan of the first film, called simply Ginger Snaps (2000) as it came along at a time when horror seemed to be retreading a lot of old ground (is that ever not the case) and presented something new and refreshing.

Karen Walton penned the screenplay, and John Fawcett directed this tale of two sisters. The basic idea, as are all the best ideas, is simple: take a girl coming into puberty and starting her periods and so on, and align it with the idea of being bitten and turning into a werewolf for the first time. The loss of person, the unexpected mood swings, the personality changes, and of course the blood. It's a beguilingly simple premise, and the film works extremely well to present the transformation that Ginger (Emily Perkins) goes through. Her sister Brigitte (Katharine Isabelle) does her best to try and help her sister, but both end up trapped in the cycle that can only really end with the death of Ginger in her wolfen form.

There's so much to love about this film. The performances from the two leads are pitch perfect, from Emily Perkins' slow transformation from teen rebel to vamp to full blown werewolf, to Katharine Isabelle's sulky younger sister, missing out on all the 'fun' and ultimately needing to align with a local drug dealer to find a potential 'cure' for her sister.

The werewolf lore here is new, not following the established 'transform at the full moon', 'silver bullets and wolfsbane' type approach that many other films follow. We have a slow transformation which takes place over several days/weeks, and the idea that monk's hood (a toxic plant) could provide the 'cure' for Ginger. 

The effects are all well done, and the film is the goriest of the three, with many scenes of stomach churning graphic gore. Wisely the director seems to have realised that the weakest element was the actual full size werewolf itself, and so it is edited around and never shown for too long. Although what you do see is quite effective.

It's something of a tour de force for the team behind it, and so there was no real surprise that a sequel came along in 2004. Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed is curious in that it doesn't really rely on the original film for its plot. The film reinterprets the ideas and Brigitte, after the events of the first film, ends up confined in a drug rehabilitation centre for women, where she tries to understand her life. Key to the film is a new character, Ghost (Tatiana Maslany), a 12 year old child, who helps Brigitte. 

Brigitte is now turning into a werewolf herself (apparently because she drunk some of Ginger's blood in the first film) and is trying to work out how the Monks Hood can save her. But there's more afoot, and Ghost too is not quite as she seems. There's also the spirit of Ginger hanging around and talking with Brigitte.

It's a more confused film than Ginger Snaps and as it doesn't really rely on the source for it's plot and development, can be seen as stand alone. This time Megan Martin wrote the screenplay and it's directed by Brett Sullivan. The standout performance here is from Tatiana Maslany, playing Ghost. As with her future barnstorming performance(s) in Orphan Black, Maslany immerses herself in the character and she's intensely watchable and nuanced. It was a surprise to realise that Maslany was around 18 or 19 years old when she played the part, and yet she is utterly convincing as a 12 year old child.

Again the effects are well done, but the film is a little muddled and it doesn't really work as a sequel, mainly because Ginger Snaps set the bar so high that nothing could really reach it. It is a very enjoyable watch though.

The third part of the trilogy, Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning (2004) is another film with only a tenuuous connection to the original story. This time it's a prequel, showing how the werewolf curse all started, and the film was made back to back with Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed.

Ginger and Brigitte are sisters in 1815, travelling the Canadian wilderness. They arrive at a fort which is beseiged by werewolves, and of course Ginger is bitten and begins her transformation. There are various comings and goings and werewolf attacks and we end with the two sisters escaping from the destroyed camp, and sharing blood together: the implication being that this creates the werewolf line which ultimately infects Ginger in Ginger Snaps.

It's another enjoyable film, and another for which you don't really need to have seen the previous two. The two leads are played by the same actresses, and some of the cast here are the same as Unleashed as the films were made at the same time. The effects are excellent, and the plot, while again a little confused, with seers and predictions and native visions coming into play to try and give the piece more of a mythalogical footing.

Written by Stephen Massicote and Christina Ray, and directed by Grant Harvey, the film is another worthy look at the werewolf myth. It's enjoyable and well made, and makes the most of the two leads.

Alongside the three films, the Second Sight release also contains a host of extras including many commentaries, interviews with the creative teams, deleted scenes and much more. It's a great way to appreciate and enjoy these three cracking films.

Available from: https://secondsightfilms.co.uk/products/the-ginger-snaps-trilogy-blu-ray-pre-order-available-may-25th

Reviews: The Time Team Unearthed: The Art of Adrian Salmon

Adrian Salmon is one of the superb artists whose work has graced the pages of Doctor Who Magazine for decades now.  His style tends to be very distinctive: blocky angular shapes and vibrant colours combining in strange and interesting angles and viewpoints for the art.  Never moreso than in a long-running feature for DWM, the 'Time Team'.  In this feature a group of fans discussed and dissected a particular Doctor Who story as they watched it ... working their way through the series, and each entry was illustrated by a piece of art from Salmon.

Now Roundel Books have collected all these pieces togther, and along with some new offerings to 'fill the gaps' so to speak, have presented it all in a lovely new artbook celebrating Salmon's work.

Printed landscape format so as to give the best coverage and size for the art (which were mostly landscape pieces), the book puts them all in context with a detailed commentary from Salmon, and supplemented by comments from others involved with Doctor Who Magazine and the feature itself.  One thing which is a little strange is placing the commentaries in a long 33 page essay at the start, rather than having them alongside the art itself. This then makes you flip back and forth through the book as you read the commentary, wanting to see the finished items.

And there's a lot more than just the finished items here. The publishers have included early sketches and ideas too, so you can see the development from sketch to black and white to coloured final piece for many of the stories.

The book is completed with a section of other artwork from Salmon, 'Classic Art from the Archives' which presents a selection of other work by the artist. A favourite here is the second Doctor clambering out of one of the CyberTombs, but it's shaped like the helmet decal seen in 'The Tomb of the Cybermen' and with some Cybermats scattered on the floor for good measure.

As a record of a much-loved aspect of Doctor Who Magazine's history, this is second to none, and it comes highly recommended. Art, and Doctor Who art in particular, doesn't come much more imaginative and impressive as this!

The book was funded via Kickstarter, and there are now copies to buy, while stocks last, from the Publisher's website. There's a smashing hardback edition (£59.99. Which comes with a free DVD, featuring an excellent and in depth interview with Salmon, audio of Salmon on a Podcast, and a video called Unnatural Born Writer: Kroton  about Salmon's writing and illustrating of a Doctor Who comic strip - these are very high quality interviews in line with the quality of the book itself), and also a paperback edition (£39.99). 

https://www.cutawaycomics.co.uk/publications/the-time-team-unearthed

Reviews: Doctor Who: Aliens of London, The Satan Pit, The Time of Angels, Stormcage

The Target range of Doctor Who novelisations expands again with three new adventures committed to the page.

First up is Joseph Lidster with an adaptation of Russell T Davies' two-part adventure 'Aliens of London'/'World War Three'.  This is a freewheeling version of the story, and, like the show itself at the time of transmission, is fun and breezy with lots to enjoy. It follows the plot of the story closely, but there are a few additions. 

The family Slitheen are well described, and there's a lot of great characterisation throughout. Another interesting element is that Doctor Sato at the hospital is reconfirmed as being the same person as Toshiko Sato from Torchwood. This was established in Torchwood itself: she has a conversation with Owen about how she had to pretend to be a doctor when he was hung over to cover for him and ended up meeting a space pig. Russell T Davies also confirmed at the time that they were the same person. There's also some appearances from Jack Harkness in the book, watching the Doctor and having timey-wimey shenanigans. 

I enjoyed the read and the ride and it's a great adaptation of a fast moving story.

Moving on to Matt Jones' adaptation of his own scripts for the two part story 'The Impossible Planet'/'The Satan Pit' and this is another very well written piece of prose. Jones sets the scenes as the three survivors (Ida/Zack/Danny) of the events on the planet Krop Tor are being put on trial for the deaths of their friends, and for the financial loss of the Sanctuary Base they were using. Each tells their own parts of the story, and so we get a version of the adventure which is slightly different from what was seen on television in that elements are explained, if you like, in the wrong order. It's a clever way of telling the story and I liked it a lot.

We have a couple of interjections from the people hearing their tales, and we conclude in the court room, during which there is a section as told by the Doctor himself which is most interesting. One of the defining characteristics of most prose Doctor Who is that the Doctor himself is unknowable, and we don't hear his thoughts or know what he's up to. This element in the book completely ignores that of course and we find out exactly what he's thinking and doing when he confronts the giant demonic god/monster/creature at the bottom of the pit.

There's also a coda where the Doctor, as part of his 'world tour' just before he regenerates in 'The End of Time', visits Ida and has a chat with her in a cemetery. It's a nice sequence and seems in line with how the Doctor was behaving at that time. There's also some expansion of the Ood here, with their 'song' coming into the narrative, and also their celebration/song of the Doctor which started in 2146 in 'Planet of the Ood'. This actually forms a key part of the narrative here and is well explained and worked into the overall plot.

There was a lot of speculation at the time as to the amount of change that Jones' ideas and scripts underwent, with the addition of the Ood (which were created by Russell T Davies for the story) being a major element. Davies has explained that an early draft of the script included Raxacoricofallapatorians - beings from the same planet as the Slitheen family - rather than the Ood. The idea was that the aliens had been enslaved and they wanted to awaken the Beast as they thought it could free them. This novelisation, however, follows the televised story and includes the Ood.

Overall this is a great addition to the Target range, and the book makes the most of an excellent script and a very exciting and eventful story. I think it's my favourite of the three this time around.

The third novelisation in this batch is by Jenny T Colgan and is of the Steven Moffat story 'The Time of Angels'/'Flesh and Stone'.

Something that all three of these books have in common is that they try to replicate their eras. So the Eccleston is fast and furious and fun; the Tennant is more heavy on the weight of being the Doctor; and the Smith one is fast and loose with an emphasis more on the events and the spectacle rather than on the story.

Thus Colgan manages to add a little into the proceedings, but not much in the way of explanation as to what is going on. The plot seems to change depending on where you are in it. There's River Song dashing around and dropping 'Spoilers' and 'Sweetie' everywhere, the Doctor muddling on through and Amy Pond overshadowed by both of them. In the mix too are a bunch of soldier Clerics, and, initially one, but then hundreds of weeping Angel creatures which are in this crashed ship and whose motivation seems somewhat obtuse. I'm just not sure what they wanted. Power? The ability to time travel? 

The story of course follows the televised episodes, but the telling is far more linear than the other books. There's an introductory piece about a man repeatedly sent further and further back in time by the Angels, and I think he wrote the book that Father Octavian is looking at. There's also a little foreshadowing of the clever sequence in the forest where Amy is talking to the Doctor (but it's the Doctor from a future adventure, 'The Big Bang', rather than the one from this story - I loved that touch on transmission).

I think if you enjoyed the television episodes, then you'll probably get on fine with the book, but don't expect any great revelations or additional information here. 

The three books have excellent covers from Dan Liles, and are £10.99 each in paperback. They have also changed the internal paper stock and it's now very much thinner than before.

The final book for review is another featuring River Song. And it's a hardback 'game' book of all things. The ones where you read a page or so, and then it poses the reader a question: If River goes back to her cell, turn to entry 102; if she heads to the engine room, turn to entry 45 ... that sort of thing.

Allegedly written by Alex Kingston (the busy actress who played River Song), but probably written by BBC Books regulars Jacqueline Rayner and Steve Cole, the book follows you/River in an adventure which starts in the Stormcage containment facility. As you go, you choose your path, and there are many endings. 

I managed to die within about 5 minutes of reading! But the book helpfully has little tick boxes so you can mark your choices as you go. This means you can backtrack (or start again) and choose different selections to see how you get on. There are Daleks and Cybermen lurking inside, as well as the TARDIS, the Doctor and a regeneration, plus Varga plants, taranium and the Time Destructor ... and lots more depending on the choices you make!

It's an enjoyable escapade, and dipping through the entries at random reveals all manner of twists and turns and characters ... I don't envy the putting of it all together, or the editors having to read and check every entry to follow all the variant story threads that it has. 

River Song last appeared on television 11 years ago (2015), so this publication is a little like a book featuring the Meddling Monk coming out while 'The Talons of Weng-Chiang' was being transmitted. Isn't fandom and the existence of DVD and episode streaming wonderful!